Summary:The X-Files is a Peabody, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning American science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and ended on May 19, 2002. The show was a hit for the Fox Broadcasting Company network, and its main characters andThe X-Files is a Peabody, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning American science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and ended on May 19, 2002. The show was a hit for the Fox Broadcasting Company network, and its main characters and slogans (e.g., "The Truth Is Out There", "Trust No One", "I Want to Believe") became pop culture touchstones. The X-Files is seen as a defining series of the 1990s, coinciding with the era's widespread mistrust of governments, interest in conspiracy theories and spirituality, and the belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life.

TV Guide called The X-Files the Second greatest cult television show and the 37th best television show of all time. In 2007, Time magazine included it on a list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time." In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named it Classic Sci-fi and the fourth best TV show in the last 25 years.

This long running FOX drama lasted nine seasons and focused on the exploits of FBI Agents Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, John Doggett and Monica Reyes and their investigations into the paranormal. From genetic mutants and killer insects to a global conspiracy concerning the colonisation of Earth by an alien species, this mind-boggling, humourous and occasionally frightening series created by Chris Carter has been one of the world's most popular sci-fi/drama shows since its humble beginnings in 1993.

So sit back and enjoy the fascinating world of The X-Files.

The entire nine seasons of The X-Files are now available on DVD!

Emmy Awards
2001 - Outstanding Makeup for a Series for episode DeadAlive
2000 - Outstanding Makeup for a Series for episode Theef - Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series for episode First Person Shooter - Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series for episode First Person Shooter
1999 - Outstanding Makeup for a series for episodes Two Fathers/One Son
1998 - Outstanding Art Direction for a Series for episode The Post-Modern Prometheus - Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Series for episode Kill Switch
1997 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Gillian Anderson - Outstanding Art Direction for a Series for episode Memento Mori - Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series for episode Tempus Fugit
1996 - Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series to Peter Boyle for episode Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama Series to Darin Morgan for episode Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a series for episode Grotesque - Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Series for episode Nisei - Outstanding individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Drama Series for episode Nisei
1994 - Outstanding Individual Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences for The X-Files

Golden Globe Awards

1998 - Best TV Series (Drama)
1997 - Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series (Drama) to David Duchovny
- Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series (Drama) to Gillian Anderson - Best TV Series (Drama)
1995 - Best TV Series (Drama)…Expand

Where To Watch

All this tension turns out to be great for the show's pulse, which had been fluttering last season. In too many of season 7's adventures, Duchovny and Anderson looked as if they'd been asked to go investigate who shot J.R. Ewing; their boredom was showing. ... [This season's first two episodes discover] a new force field of energy.

Even though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents aEven though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents a dip down in quality, but it doesn't succumb to its wounds either, thanks in part to the overwhelming amount of new faces that are supplied with just the right amount of character development needed to properly introduce them.…Expand

The eighth season represents a dip down in quality, mostly due to the overwhelming amount of new faces and the lack of character developmentThe eighth season represents a dip down in quality, mostly due to the overwhelming amount of new faces and the lack of character development needed to properly introduce them. Nonetheless, you'll be highly entertained and spooked throughout.…Expand

The eighth season of The X-Files would be the perfect last season of the show, and a pretty solid first season of a new show born from theThe eighth season of The X-Files would be the perfect last season of the show, and a pretty solid first season of a new show born from the ashes.

In many ways, television is a conservative medium – more in an artistic sense than a political one. Network television is largely built around churn, a conveyor belt model that is designed to generate product according to tight schedules and oppressive deadlines. Routine and familiarity make the production schedule easier to manage, particularly for shows with large season orders. More than that, if a show has figured out an approach that has worked, it makes no sense to deviate from that pattern.

Why risk changing something that has been proven to work and to which the audience has responded? For all the (deserved) praise The X-Files gets for popularising (or repopularising) serialised storytelling in prime-time television, it was just as conservative as any other show. The production team were working under incredible pressure, so it makes sense they would not want to change a formula that made sense. As such, the really big changes to the show were largely driven by external factors.

The mythology largely developed from Scully’s abduction in Duane Barry and Ascension, an attempt by the writers to work around Scully’s abduction. The decision to film The X-Files: Fight the Future between the fourth and fifth seasons was at the behest of Fox rather than the production team. David Duchovny forces the move to Los Angeles in the sixth season. The eighth season represents the most seismic shift in the creative life of The X-Files, and – as with those other big decisions – it was largely driven by choices outside the production team.

In hindsight, it seems obvious that the show could not continue forever. Duchovny and Anderson were headlining a show that filmed twenty-odd episodes a season. The show had begun diffusing its focus in the fourth and fifth seasons by focusing on members of the supporting cast, but it was still effectively a two-lead show. That is a tremendous strain. Something had to give. It turned out that something was Duchovny. At the end of the seventh season, with everything coming down to the wire, Duchovny made it clear he would not appear in a full eighth season.

This forced the show to change, but in a way that afforded some measure of stability. The idea of doing The X-Files without either Mulder or Scully was horrifying to the production team and horrifying to certain sections of fandom, but Duchovny’s willingness to stick around for half of the eighth season afforded some measure of compromise. The change did not need to be jarring. Easing David Duchovny out of the show would allow for a smoother transition. It would allow the show to say a proper (and extended) farewell to Mulder.

The eighth season finds itself in the impossible position of having to imagine The X-Files without Mulder. The only real issue is that it succeeds all too well. The biggest problem with the eighth season is that it is followed by a ninth season.

Still, allowing for these problems, the eighth season is a remarkable accomplishment. It proves that there is life left in The X-Files. The show had survived the most traumatic transition that a show like this could face. The show finished the eighth season in a stronger position than it had in years. Unfortunately, a lot would change between the broadcast of Existence and Nothing Important Happened Today I.…Expand

Even though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents aEven though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents a dip down in quality, and it succumbs to its wounds, thanks in part to the overwhelming amount of new faces that aren't supplied with the right amount of character development needed to properly introduce them.…Expand

Even though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents aEven though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents a dip down in quality, and it succumbs to its wounds, thanks in part to the overwhelming amount of new faces that aren't supplied with the right amount of character development needed to properly introduce them.…Expand

Even though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents aEven though its final episodes are white-knuckle intense - enough to please any hardcore fan of the series - season eight still represents a dip down in quality, and it succumbs to its wounds, thanks in part to the overwhelming amount of new faces that aren't supplied with the right amount of character development needed to properly introduce them.…Expand

Our editors select 25 noteworthy new and returning TV shows debuting in January and February, including new series from Zach Galifianakis, Martin Scorsese, and Ryan Murphy, the latest Arrow spin-off, and the return of The X-Files.